Many machines are mobile machines configured to perform one or more tasks while traveling over a work surface, such as a road surface. A cold planer is an example of such a mobile machine. The cold planer may include a grinding mechanism such as a rotor that grinds a top layer of the work surface as the cold planer moves in a machine travel direction. The cold planer may include a conveyor connected to a frame of the cold planer that receives the material that is ground from the road surface by the rotor. The conveyor may convey the material to another vehicle, such as a dump truck, traveling next to the cold planer.
The rotor may be surrounded by a rotor housing to contain ground material from the work surface so that the material may be removed by the conveyor. A portion of the rotor extends below the rotor housing so that it can dig into the work surface. The rotor housing may include side plates that extend below the rotor housing to further retain the material ground out of the work surface by the rotor. In known cold planers, the side plate may lie on the work surface under the force of gravity and be dragged by the cold planer in a floating condition. An example of an alternative side plate arrangement is provided in U.S. Patent Appl. Publ. No. 2013/0082508 published on Apr. 4, 2013 to Orefice. In the published application, a side plate arrangement for a milling device includes a milling roller box arranged on a frame of the milling device, a side plate whose height can be adjusted and a side plate support having a swivel bearing with a swivel axis around which the side plate can swivel against the frame in a swivel area. One element of the milling device is a guide curve running concentrically to the swivel axis, with the help of which the swivel movement of the side plate around the swivel axis is carried out. Height adjustment of the side plate occurs actively through a lifting device linked to the side plate, specifically through a one cylinder piston unit. After being positioned at the desired height, the side plate skids along a work surface and rotates about a swivel axis as the milling device passes over an uneven work surface.